In 2016 the Sensing Tourist Travel study- now called Tourism Tracer- created a bespoke
app that transmitted real-time GPS location data to collect information on the travel patterns
of different types of tourists to the state of Tasmania, Australia. The app was sensitively
designed to overcome the methodological issues that had plagued previous research in this
space; as well as tracking movement, the app contained an entry and exit survey, thus
capturing insights into touristsí travel style, preferences and travel behaviour. The study was
run from January February to May, 2016 and resulted in the successful tracking of 472 free
independent tourists who travelled in Tasmanian for between 4 and 14 days.

This presentation will present the results of this data, and focus on itinerary choice. Until
now, the factors that influence tourists choice of itinerary through an entire state (be it a
nation state or provincial state) have largely been based on theoretical conceptualisations.
Studies that do combine GPS technology with demographics have largely been limited to
investigations of daily movements, movement within tourist attractions such as national
parks, event venues or townships, or macro tourist flows such as arrivals and departures.
Data from this study reveals the itinerates taken by tourists for the duration of the trip to
Tasmania, and the factors that influence their choices.